2013-01-31

Holy cow, where did January go?!! I can't believe it is the last day of the month already. This is the free calendar I got using an email coupon from Shutterfly. I picked the style I wanted (I went for the watercolor look), and I could customize each page with the layout and number of photos I wanted, all for about $7 in shipping charges. I had already been looking for a calendar for work when the coupon arrived, and it was cheaper than any of the ones I was considering purchasing from Amazon. I love having it hanging in my cube at work! It makes me smile every time I see it. No affiliation, just a happy customer.

2013-01-30

Well, this fabric started out the month completely blank. I guess that's not too bad for one month of progress. It is primarily just two weekends worth of work, with a strand or two thrown in here or there. I'll take it!

2013-01-29

My husband is not a reader, so I've been giving him the cliff notes version of the differences between the Lord of the Rings movies and the books. This morning, he asked me if Legolas and Gimli were counting yet. I sort of rolled my eyes, and he said that he was joking. We both agreed that counting slain enemies was likely put in just for the movie. Then during lunch, I read the above paragraph and nearly burst out laughing. I had to snap a picture of it and send it to DH!

2013-01-28

This arrived in the mail today. Look at the shiny!! Can't wait to try it.

2013-01-27

This is my uncle with my cousin's daughter L. Today was Miss L's first birthday! We had a great time at her party, seeing several folks I haven't seen in years. Some, like my other cousin S, I hadn't seen in 5 years or more. She's had two more kids since then! We really need to do better about that.

2013-01-26

Luke had his first basketball game (and practice) today. I can't believe how grown up he looks in this picture! He really seemed to love it, which thrills my husband to no end.

2013-01-25

Zoya Aurora. Best shot I could get that showed both the color and the holo of the glitter. LOVE!

2013-01-24

Moving right along through Lord of the Rings. I finished Fellowship and have now proceeded to The Two Towers. The differences between the books and the movie are interesting! Sometimes I prefer the book, but honestly, I sometimes prefer Peter Jackson's take on things.

2013-01-23

I bought a pack of 12 monthly magnetic notepads several years ago. I wondered at the time if I would actually keep up with swapping them out each month and/or keep using them after the first year. Yes I did! Each pad is probably half gone now or more, but I still love them, and they still make me smile each month. (For the record, the menu for this week was: chicken salad, bubble up pizza, pancakes, potato cheese soup, and mexican cracker pizza.)

2013-01-22

Zoya has had some good sales lately, so I picked up a few new bottles. This is Gloria, a pink foil base with tons of gold micro-glitter. So pretty! Please excuse the crummy application on this job. It's actually harder to see in person; you're too busy being dazzled by the shiny!

2013-01-21

I'm always trying to explain how large our cat Bengal is. He weighs 15-ish pounds, but he is NOT fat. At all. In fact, the vet says he is exactly the weight he should be for his size. One of the best indicators of his size is his huge paws. Here is his front left paw, resting on my husband's laptop keyboard. That is a standard keyboard with standard keys (not the tiny keys that some on some mini notebooks or tablets). See; huge!

2013-01-20

I did finally finish The Hobbit and moved on to The Lord of the Rings. When I started it, I remembered why I never got very far. I don't think I ever made it past the prologue. I wish someone had told me that the rest of the book is *much* better than the prologue! Once I finally got through it and kept reading, things improved dramatically. I'm quite enjoying it now, though it is quite different from the movie(s).

2013-01-19

We saw Blue Man Group at The Fox Theatre today. It was a new experience for all of us, and we really enjoyed it! It was also our first time taking Luke to The Fox (though not his first visit; he went last year with his school).

2013-01-18

Hey, look at that, I do still have a shadow! I was starting to think I'd lost mine, like Peter Pan. So nice to see the sun today.

2013-01-17

Enough with the rain already! It's been nearly two weeks since we've seen the sun. Supposedly, it will be sunny tomorrow. I'll believe it when I see it.

2013-01-16

I've been doing my annual revamp of my Disney tips. I decided to get serious this year and really read everything in there. As you can see, I've made quite a few changes and clarifications. Most of the (14!) pages look more or less like this, and I imagine it will be at least a couple of pages longer by the time I'm finished. And we haven't even been yet this year! LOL

2013-01-15

I'm participating in my friend Heather's Theme-a-licious 2013. This is all I've gotten done for the mid-month check in, and only because I did it the weekend before. I decided to start a new piece (first large new start in years!), so that's why there isn't much there yet. Looking forward to watching her grow.

2013-01-14

Tigger has to take a pill twice a day for her thyroid (common in older cats), and this little gadget has been a lifesaver for us. It is a pill popper for animals. The soft plastic tip is split, so it can hold the pill. It's long enough to get into the mouth without risking your fingers, and the plunger ejects the pill right into the back of the throat, so they are less likely to spit it out (if you get it in far enough). We love it!

2013-01-13

Luke is ready for his friend's Secret Agent birthday party.

2013-01-12

I know y'all are probably getting tired of this shot. I take it at least every 2-3 months, but I just love it. the concentration, the lighting... I can't get enough.

2013-01-11

We bought a bag of new cat toys a couple of days ago. There were three small mice, like this one, two large plush mice, two plush balls, two plastic balls with bells inside, and two raffia balls. That's 11 new cat toys, including a total of 5 mice. So is everyone happy? No, they fight over this *one* blue mouse!! It is the craziest thing. I'm not sure how Cleo ended up with it (she's not really a fighter), but she is doing her traditional new toy mind meld with it.

2013-01-10

I don't carry a purse, and I don't have a briefcase. But I do have a bag. This is a Mickey Mouse reusable grocery bag. It holds these items you see here (keys, camera, book, umbrella, insulated cup (this one is Luke's (hence the robots), since mine was still dirty this morning)), plus it fits my lunch bag nicely.

2013-01-09

Not really happy with my winter cube decorations. I loved my Halloween, Fall, and Christmas ones, but these winter ones are quite lacking. The ribbon is nice, but the shelf stuff is a bit blah. Need to start looking in December next year.

2013-01-08

Around Christmas, I noticed the faceplate of my cell phone cover had cracked. It wasn't split all the way through, yet, but I went on and ordered a new one (right). The old blue one is really more "me", but I like the new one, too. It's nice to switch things up every now and then, and my old case was about a year old. I was also very happy to see that the new one is actually silvery, like the old one, not white like I thought from the picture online.

2013-01-07

DH received several new shirt and tie combinations for Christmas. I actually found this tie in a different color scheme first. I loved it, but they were not his colors. Then, after I found this shirt, I found the tie in a matching color combo, and I had to buy it! I wasn't sure if he would notice the squirrels at first, but he did within just a few moments of opening it. He wore it to work today; only one person noticed the squirrels (or at least commented on it).

2013-01-06

We ate at Mimi's Cafe today for the first time in probably a year. We really like their food, but there's nothing that Luke really likes to eat there, and there isn't one overly convenient to our house (which is probably not a bad thing). I've always loved this chandelier with the beads.

2013-01-05

My aunt and cousin are visiting from New Mexico. We had a big family get together at my uncle's house. Tyler decided to show Luke some tricks on a guitar. Luke had never handled one before; I think he's in love!

2013-01-04

Wow, we made it to January 4 before our first trip of the new year to Target. Actually, I think it's been over 10 days since our last visit (right before Christmas). Everyone goes to Target weekly (on average), right?

2013-01-03

This polish is what is known as a "linear holo." The picture doesn't even come close to the awesomeness in person. This is Layla Hologram Effect in Ultra Violet, which magically showed up in my stocking at Christmas. Thanks, Mom, I mean, Santa! Formula is super fiddly, but look how pretty! I love linear holos, but they are generally quite expensive. They used to be hard to find, though more companies are making them now. China Glaze is supposed to be debuting a whole line of them this spring. Can't wait!!

2013-01-02

Luke has visited Daddy at work quite a few times, both at his old office and the new one. But until recently, I had only ever worked from home since Luke was born. It worked out this day that Luke went to work with Daddy, but the met me for lunch near my office, and Luke got to come up for a quick visit.

2013-01-01

Mini repair droids, Luke's own design. "They're small so they can get in and repair damage to the computer." Center brick added for scale. I think they are both adorable and terribly creative!